In a time such as this, it is perhaps best if we start from the beginning.

So I shall begin.

It was never made clear who fired the first shot. Nor was it clear who declared war on whom. It does not matter now, for neither side is blameless. On one side was a nation on the brink of collapse, fighting for a symbol to bring its people together. On the other side, a federation fighting for the right to exist. Are these two sides so different from each other?

The biggest tragedy of the war was how preventable it was. Admiral Morian's pride called for our ships to stand down and surrender. Captain Leceister's pride required that his battle frigate respond to these calls with violence. Ego dictated that the loss of the Renjian must not go unpunished, and that these Galactic Terran aggressors would be forcibly ejected from our space.

Everything we had worked for as a society over the past fifty years, ignored and discarded at a time when it was needed the most. We traded words for violence, and reason for emotion.

Though we know how considerably the war changed GTVA society, it is less known how much of our own society had changed. The military had been steadily decreasing in funding and prestige ever since the socialist and humanist Council of Elders became the ruling party. At the start of war, the military underwent a boost in funding not seen since the beginning of the Terran-Vasudan war.

Little of human nature changes in fifty years, and the military soon grew proud. By the time we realised that we had become little better than the GTA, it was too late.

Martin Mandho
Excerpt from manuscript 'The Death of Ubuntu'